How did island woman's son fare in "The Amazing Race?"By DANIEL BROWNSTEIN

Over beer, wine and a massive bowl of onion dip, Susan Citron watched her son begin his well-documented race around the world.

From their home overlooking Broad Creek on the south end of Hilton Head Island, the doting mother and her husband, Arnie Blakeman, nervously watched the season premier of CBS' "The Amazing Race." Her son, Terence Gerchberg, and his girlfriend, Sarah Leshner, are one of 11 teams competing for $1 million.

Terence, 35, is a running coach and marathon runner who sells real

estate on the side. Sarah, 32, is a financial analyst on Wall Street who has an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and has studied abroad.

The couple live in New York and had been dating for six months when they embarked on the race that spans 30,000 miles and five continents. In real life, it took 23 days. On television, it'll play out over the next 10 weeks.

Mental and physical challenges produce clues to the next destination. A team is eliminated after eight of the 11 legs.

Because the race was filmed in April and May, the secret of who won "The Amazing Race" is fiercely guarded. Contestants can't even tell their loved ones how they fared.

The first leg of the race took the teams from Los Angeles to Brazil. Both locations were strong suits for Terence, who lived in L.A. and dated a woman in Buenos Aires, and Sarah, who speaks several languages including, it seemed on Sunday, Portuguese.

The team bickered early on, providing some signs that their intensity might end up causing a meltdown. Terence said he just wanted to be "held" and "connected with" while Sarah chatted up other teams.

"This isn't a popularity contest," Terence later said in a taxi in Salvador. "Sarah wants everybody to like her. I could care less if nobody speaks to me ... ."

That made his mother laugh.

"That's my boy," she said. "He's the luckiest kid ever. He goes against the odds, and it doesn't matter. He just doesn't take 'no' for an answer."

After making the mistake of taking the elevator instead of stairs to the top of a tower, the team recovered on the first leg of the race. They ended up in third place on a floating fort, Forte Sao Marcelo, which was built to defend the port from pirates.

Hey all, I was with Sarah and Terence last night watching the show and just did a blog post about it. You can check it out here: http://terenceandsarah.typepad.com/ I hope everyone's enjoying the show!

Oh, i'm so glad to see some good Sarah vibes here. As nerve-wracking as I know it is for Sarah (and all the racers I'm sure) to see how she's received by the world, it is pretty tense also for those of us who know and love her too! She is truly one of the kindest, coolest people I know and I'm so happy to see that shine through this week. I just did a new blog about it...as she also totally surprised me by rocking a cause that's near and dear to my heart on the show tonight. You can check out what I'm referring to here: www.chooselovemore.com if you're curious. I also updated the Terence & Sarah blog at www.TerenceandSarah.typepad.com. Sarah is such a good girl and I loved watching her tonight. Yea Sarah!

I also think Terence may be getting an unfortunate edit... he was really generous with his credit to Dallas & Toni, and seemed quite genuine in his apology to Tina in the airport (when I actually didn't think he was so out of line!) He also didn't call anyone names ("Terence is being an a**", ahem...) or blatantly not keep his word to another racer. I think his story line is getting better while others might be getting worse...

Nobody else has posted this (that I can tell) so I hope I'm not getting anyone in trouble... but a friend sent me some pics and wall posts from racers' facebook pages and it looks like they had a reunion last weekend! The female reacers stayed over in Sarah's apartment. I think it's cute that they all like each other...

Nobody else has posted this (that I can tell) so I hope I'm not getting anyone in trouble... but a friend sent me some pics and wall posts from racers' facebook pages and it looks like they had a reunion last weekend! The female reacers stayed over in Sarah's apartment. I think it's cute that they all like each other...

I saw those pictures but, for me anyway, what happens on Facebook stays on Facebook unless I'm asked to do otherwise but, again.. thats just me.I loved the pictures and was wishing I was there, it looks like they had a blast

Nuala

This couple is a hoot. I had to laugh when the guy bumped his head LOL. I have done crazy things like that and been hurt. LOL. When he said could you blow on this I was like wow whose the man and who is the woman. Not that men can't be sensitive, but he is very needy. Maybe she is just too independent for him?

I might be over-thinking this, but for tonight's episode I think we've seen footage of every single team doing the cholita wrestling except Terence & Sarah! (and maybe Nick & Starr, I can't remember...) It looks like Terence is sitting down the other non-roadblockers, so where's Sarah?? Could the U-turn have something to do with it?? I know I've seen Kenny, Marisa, Ty, Dallas, Dan, Mark, Kelly for sure. Boooooo

Yes good job (great recovery!) but I wish they had more airtime. I knew they weren't the jerks everyone thought they were during the first couple episodes!! I feel like this episode showed them moving in the right direction

Although Terence looked really frustrated with Sarah during the wrestling... I wish we had seen more of that

I have decided that Terence may be getting a bad rap. Is CBS trying too hard to make him a villain? Are we just seeing an intense racer?

I find it quite telling that the last three teams eliminated, when asked who they would like to see win the race (keeping in mind that they know the outcome of course) have responded "Terence and Sarah". So among the racers so far, they seem to be quite popular!

In any case, they have started a "redemption" edit I think in showing him poling the boat and the insider vid showing him so taken with the experience of Cambodia.

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And while I'm here I've been meaning to point out the ugly unfair editing that Eric got during All Stars and we know personally what a great guy he is so for whatever reasons TPTB are giving Terence a ugly editing I have no idea, I am sure hes a great guy, and my gut tells me so and I'm a pretty good people person. So know Terence that you have fans that do not judge you by the editing , you and Sarah are damn good racers!

I think Terrance has been getting a much better edit lately actually, and I've been watching TAR11 .... and..... I actually like Eric and Daniele ... I think wanting D/K to win so bad didn't let me pay attention to the other teams

Sarah, in case you're reading this - I thought you were just soooooo funny this episode! practically every moment you were on camera was great - here's some more lines i posted in the spoilers which i realize many don't read:Somebody already mentioned the "who's my girl - it's you babe" earlier. But the best was yet to come..

Sarah in the spice shop:"I just wish there was another team right here with us suffering alongside of this. They're breezing thru that other frickin' detour and we're like suffering here like fools!"

Then later in the taxi after the spices:"If somebody said to be right now, put cow manure on your body and it'll make you feel better, I'd lather myself up with that - that's how much pain I'm feeling!!!!!" I was literally rolling on the floor! I had to stop and rewind like - 5 times! you just can't make this stuff up. and the delivery too...